Lissie saw the light flare in front of her and she willed the candle settle. The candle went out. The soldiers at the table looked scared. They had been willing enough to share their food, but Lissie knew things were turning strange around her.
People in the south would have hardly noticed, but these soldiers were jumpy. It must be the magic blowing in from the North.
She stared at the chicken bones.
“What do you see?” Cora looked with interest.
“I see the path. It’s only a few miles north of here.” Lissie pointed at the bones on the plate in front of her. “At the top of a waterfall. Once we get to the top of the waterfall, I’ll try scrying for the cave itself.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad.” Riley was pulling another half-chicken onto her plate.
“We can leave after breakfast.” Alexander was spreading half a stick of butter over half a loaf of bread. “The food is phenomenal.”
Cora looked at Lissie’s plate again. “You really should eat more. The cold burns a lot of food. Have some more butter.”
Lissie forced herself to take another bite of bread and looked at the blue man staring back at her from the chicken bones.
The conversation turned back to things Lissie did not want to think about. Cora and Alexander were arguing about whether to bring Ruskin. Riley was talking to the soldiers about construction of arrows.
Lissie’s mind kept returning to that snowy place with the wind that whistles from the north and that same smiling man.
Is he a giant?
They left most of Alexander’s packs. He had insisted that they be placed in a safe. No one questioned Riley. She seemed to know all the right things to say. Lissie followed in her wake, as the path was laid out before her.
The north exit from the Tower led to snow. Some of the lumps of snow had blue shadows underneath, and she realized they must be trees. She had been handed two sets of metal frames to put on her boots. One was wide, for loose snow. The other one had brutally sharp metal claws on the bottom. Riley said they were used for clawing their way up ice.
At the gate, Cora taught them all to attach their snow shoes. Cora said, “Once they are firm on the front, the back will drag. You must lift your foot high and walk carefully in the center of your stride.”
Alexander asked, “Did you do a lot of snowshoeing in Terndowns?”
“I read some books. It should be pretty easy. Just like this.” Cora took a few steps, and her snowshoe fell off and she plunged into snow up to her hip.
“Excellent, I shall follow your example to the letter.” Alexander shuffled his way forward, and helped her up. “I tried the Company’s snowshoes a few times. The crampons are a different matter. You missed a clip, here.”
It was slow going, Lissie felt it in her shins and her lower back. It took a lot of effort to raise her foot high over the snow.
Riley had stomped her way to the front and seemed happy to break trail for them. Past the tree line, she turned around. “We should take turns leading—” When she took another step, she pitched forward into the snow.
Lissie shouted, “Are you okay, what happened?”
“I stepped on the stupid—” Riley rolled over in the snow and was getting back to her feet. She looked like she was swimming in the deep powder. Alexander and Cora extracted her and placed her on her feet again.
Alexander took the lead. Lissie smiled at Ruskin, poking his head out of the backpack for a moment before burrowing back inside. The trees were taller, and the snow was deeper as they fell into a valley. They pushed on until Alexander got tired.
Cora said, “I’ll lead next, but I need food.” She started stamping in a circle, and made a nook for them under a large tree. Sausages, cheese, bread. More butter. It was now hard and cold.
Lissie forced herself to eat, but it sat heavy in her stomach.
She saw the wind before she heard it, and it shook the branches overhead. The branches waved and she scurried out of the way.
No one else had moved in time. They shook snow from their shoulders and hair.
The one benefit of the cold was that the snow stayed frozen. They pushed on one step at a time until Lissie took her turn in the front and saw the waterfall. “It’s up there. I can see it.” The winter had frozen and polished it to a column of blue laced with white cracks.
“Time for the easy part!” Alexander sounded grim.